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If Lil Uzi Vert wants to drop new music every single day for the foreseeable future, I would support this wholeheartedly. Luv Is Rage 2 is a triumph, and is practically begging for a relatively immediate follow-up. So why not hit us with a Playboi Carti collab project?

In a Snapchat post over the weekend, Carti appeared to confirm that something with Uzi is afoot.

Shouted fuck yeahs aside, no official announcement regarding an Uzi x Carti collab tape has been made. Still, it would be downright cruel to share a post including both the word “tape” and an image of such an iconic duo only to fall short of releasing a full-blown project together. Fingers crossed as fuck.

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Over the weekend, Uzi teased a sequel to his 2016 mixtape Lil Uzi Vert vs. the World. In an Instagram clip, Uzi teased a new track with the caption “Just A Vibe💨🚷 ….👨🏾‍🎤vs🌏2® ? 🙄.” Sadly, Marilyn Manson was not seen or heard in the clip.

Uzi's debut album, Luv Is Rage 2, made Uzi a full-fledged star of unfuckwithable stature. The album opened at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and garnered largely enthusiastic reviews from critics. If all subsequent teased projects come to pass, we'll soon be getting something with Carti, Lil Uzi Vert vs. the World 2, and a freestyle rock album that will possibly feature some input from Manson.

Los Angeles Lakers' Lonzo Ball is set to drop new music soon. Ball, who's made headlines recently with his 21 Savage and Jay Z comparisons, opened up about his musical ambitions in a new interview with XXL. Ball discussed his early musical influences, the importance of Lil Wayne, and his future plans.

As a kid, Ball revealed, he listened to “a lot” of 50 Cent and DMX. “Those were probably the two main rappers I was listening to when I was young, but my favorite rapper has always been Lil Wayne,” Ball said. As for why Weezy stands tallest among his influences, Ball said he feels the Young Money boss has remained consistent with his output. “Lyrically, he's definitely one of my favorites to do it,” he said. “I need him to be free so he could put that other album out for me, but he's already put a lot towards the game.” Ball credits his father, a devoted 2Pac fan, for introducing him to music.

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As for his plans to follow his debut single “Melo Ball 1,” Ball revealed he's currently working on new music. In fact, the next Lonzo Ball release will be backed by the family-owned Big Baller Music Group. “I won't be able to to do so since I'm focused on the NBA season ahead, but definitely one of my dad's close people that he works with will handle the record label,” Ball said. So far, Ball hasn't enlisted any guests for the mystery project.

Ball also noted what he's been listening to the most recently, including 21 Savage's Issa Album and Lil Uzi Vert's Luv Is Rage 2. Check out the full interview here.

Ball turned a few purists' heads earlier this month with his Nas comments. Nas, however, apparently has no idea who Lonzo Ball even is.

On today's #EverydayStruggle, Joe Budden, DJ Akademiks, and Nadeska ran through the day of news, which included Paul Rosenberg's move to save Def Jam Records, Lil Yachty calling out the XXL cyphers, and French Montana not knowing who produced his biggest hit ever. Later, the crew dove into Akademiks' Twitch game before dissecting Lloyd Banks' career. To wrap, the gang ran through some quick hits before answering a bunch of fan tweets.

But while the artist was implying release day was around the corner, conflicting information came from producer Don Cannon. In April, he said during a livestream, “If you didn't hear, Luv Is Rage [2] is not dropping no time soon. It's not going to be a long time from now, but not within this month. We still working on the album. It's a process.”

Then, just a few days ago, five new songs made their way onto SoundCloud, though Uzi denied they were off the album:

Y'all thought them songs was on luv is rage 🙄 we coming way harder den dat 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔊🦇2®

Reps who we reached out to said the project would come out this fall—so that's apparently what “coming soon” means. While “fall” is kind of broad, and not exactly official, on Thursday it was reported that Maaly Raw, a 22-year-old producer who'd been with Uzi since 2014, told XXL that the coveted project is “about 90% finished right now.”

“It's basically done,” the producer said. “I guess we're just working on extra songs trying to perfect it.” He also added that Atlantic Records had set a deadline for the final version, though he didn't state specifically when that deadline was.

“We’ll be in the studio from 2 p.m. to 6 a.m. every day. We basically sleep there,” he said about their current recording sessions. “Uzi works fast, real fast. I’ll pull up a beat, he’ll do it. He’ll hop right up and wanna work on the next one right after that. It just be like that, all day.”

Finally, Maaly said that the album is a “classic,” and though he's biased, that statement is certain to wind up fans more. “Everything [Uzi] been doing, he just elevated it, that’s all,” he said. “Different sounds—the way I’m comin’ on it, I’m comin’ different. Some of the stuff on [Luv Is Rage 2], people not expecting from me, so that’s gonna be exciting when you hear it.” Hmmm, seems like “when you hear it” is the key phrase there.

Until more specifics are provided, fall will have to suffice. But “90 percent finished” seems like a step in the right direction.

“No New York City men's conversation is complete without Supreme,” Kim Jones, Louis Vuitton style director, said in a press release after the house's Fall/Winter show in Paris in January.​ According toXXL, the pop-up shop is expected to remain in service through July 13.

Additional pop-up locations are expected to be announced. In May, an attempt at opening one in New York City hit a wall when all 32 members of Manhattan's Community Board No. 2 voted to reject the proposal for a location at 25 Bond St. Fashionistareported that several Bond St. residents showed up to a public hearing to express their “strong disapproval” of the shop. Additionally, Supreme reportedly failed to present a management plan for handling such a high amount of customers.

“The applicant presented no plan as to where these 1000+ customers would use the bathroom while waiting hours upon hours in the line,” the Board said.

The truce may have come to fruition after Iggy extended an olive branch to Banks via a lengthy message posted on Snapchat. “I just want to say FYI, re: A. Banks. Call me crazy but girl, I don’t hate you. I don’t know you to hate you,” she wrote. “I believe you may want to meet me in person so you can steal a lock of my hair and cast a spell hoping I die (lol) I don’t agree with many of your opinions but honestly, at times I empathize with you as a creative Gemini woman. I wish you had spoken to me before deciding I was out to get you when we first came on the scene, but that’s also typical Gemini reaction shit (I get it). As a 27 year old adult woman just know: I wish you well from one human to another and joke collaboration or not as adults we should move past trivial beef with strangers.” Azalea also posted a video, expressing a desire to speak with Azealia and “at least come to an understanding.”

In an interview with XXL, Azealia seemed open to the idea of talking with Iggy, leaving the door open for both sides to squash their beef. “I think a true reconciliation can happen once there is some acknowledgment of what hip-hop has been trying to tell her. I still don’t think she quite understands the effect her racial privilege and the socio-economic leverage that comes with it has on a marginalized group of women’s culture. Race aside, this is also a women’s issue. I hope that there will be a chance for us to have an open discussion about this, as I feel America and the world could really benefit from some candid discourse between two public figures about the world’s biggest sickness: racism. I wish for women of the future to be able to refer to this moment in women’s culture as an example of what can happen when people take time to understand.”

On Friday, Banks posted a note on Instagram where she listed off a number of requests, which includes releasing “this Iggy collab.”

“The kid lost the stems to the beat. It had some samples in the original from a film. I recreated some of the stems enough to patch up the beat and remove the samples. I was gonna recreate the whole beat then I found a way to keep it. Major labels don’t play with samples not being cleared The song would never have come out or cleared legal at Def Jam. If that’s nothing, then he’s right.

“He should have better file management skills if he works at an electronics repair shop.

“He should get facts straight before he speaks on my name. I let the claim go because I have better shit to do than fight with people over BS. Hope he enjoys the bread and appreciates what I did to help him make $$. That’s about it. Menace, put some respek on my name.

“And thank god Mike Dean removed your samples, youngin. Should throw me a few points from his pocket my way, but I am doing ok with or without the “Panda” bread.

“P.S. He should also thank Plain Pat (the best A&R in the world and my favorite co-producer) who made us (G.O.O.D. Music) all aware of “Panda” in the first place.”

Original story is below.

Desiigner’s 2015 debut single “Panda” catapulted the rapper into hip-hop stardom. The track dominated the airwaves, earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Performance, topped the Billboard charts, and was sampled by Kanye West. It was the kind of introduction many rappers dream of; however, the mastermind behind the “Panda” beat hasn’t received the same success. In fact, he claims he’s still waiting on payment.

“There was a situation with Future putting [an infringement] claim in because apparently, he said that ‘Panda’ sounded like ‘Fuck Up Some Commas.’ So we were just about to see the checks but there’s been a lot of delays so we won’t see anything until next year anyway,” Menace said. “Not only [Future], Mike Dean, Kanye West’s producer, he put a claim in as well saying that he did something to the beat and he never did. I don’t think we’ll see a check until probably next year. Right now, it’s just going through negotiations. The problem is that once someone puts a claim in, it just stops everything.” A representative for Future denied Menace's claims, saying that they are “not true.”

“God gave him a blessing, but he gave me a blessing too. I ain't gonna doubt the man's music. He make beautiful music too. Music is made every day,” he said. “Big ups to him, big ups to Future. I actually like Future’s music. I like his music, you feel me. I’m not a hater or a critic on him, you know, I do me. God bless him, God bless me.”

During the San Diego stop on his Revenge Tour, 19-year-old Florida-based rapper XXXTentacion got knocked out mid-song while performing at The Observatory. The assailant, who's identity has not been confirmed, is said to be an associate of Rob Stone, a 22-year-old rapper from San Diego who made some noise with a song “Chill Bill” but has been connected to XXXTentacion through a beef that's been stirring since April of this year.

With XXXTentacion's name being in the news circuit for most of 2017, and a flurry of theories regarding what happened in this altercation (which someone who may or may not have been the person who attacked XXXTentacion being stabbed), the question on everyone's lips is “what the hell happened?”

Let's walk back to the beginning of the beef, which reportedly features everything from grabbing mics, more violent attacks, and a rapper named Ski Mask The Slump God. Here's a look at Rob Stone and XXXTentacion's beef.

To understand how XXXTentacion and Rob Stone started beefing, you have to understand Stone's beef with Ski Mask the Slump God, another Florida-based rapper who is down with XXXTentacion. According to reports, Ski Mask was escorted off the stage at a show at The Observatory on a San Diego date for Desiigner's Outlet Tour.

As the story goes, Ski Mask tried getting on the mic as Rob Stone was getting on stage to start his performance. Ski Mask got frustrated over the ordeal and decided to not leave the stage. Footage shows that he ended up getting walked off the stage by a number of unidentified men.

When word got to XXXTentacion about what happened at the show to Ski Mask, he took to Twitter to vent. The tweet, which has since been deleted, said, “Let them know whoever the fuck that is getting fucked in they mouth when I go on tour for putting their peasant hands on my brother.” Rob Stone wasn't here for it, and let it be known in his own tweet.

April 10, 2017: Ski Mask gets jumped

The very next night on Desiigner's Outlet Tour found Ski Mask and Rob Stone getting into it at the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles. At the start of Ski Mask the Slump God's set, a pair of individuals are jumped him from behind, causing the three of them to fall into the crowd. Ski Mask is said to have then jumped back on stage, and was chased by a whole squad of people.

April 11, 2017: Two sides of the same story

In two separate conversations with XXL, both Rob and Ski Mask laid out their sides of what happened in Los Angeles. Stone likened Ski Mask's set in L.A. to being the “third strike” of disrespect. Strike one was said to have been an incident where Ski Mask ran out during Rob's set in Seattle to interact with fans mid-song. Stone says, “The nigga was ruining my spot. So that was the first strike and I told the nigga, ‘Don’t do that. If you’re gonna run on my set, come on ‘Chill Bill’ at the end.’ So he was like, ‘Aight, cool’ and it was straight.” Stone said strike two was at the San Diego show. According to him, Ski Mask's lateness forced set times to be pushed back, with Ski Mask being told he's go on at 9 p.m. Around 9:25, Stone says Ski Mask finally showed up, and took to the stage as Rob Stone was about to go on. When Stone's DJ wouldn't hand Ski Mask the mic, he got aggy and stood his ground.

Stone said that after the back-and-forth with XXXTentacion and Ski Mask on Twitter, as well as seeing XXX on Instagram Live “talking about Ski Mask gonna slap the shit outta me,” Stone decided he'd approach Ski Mask at the L.A. show, but Ski Mask showed up and hopped right on stage. “I wasn’t even trying to run onstage and do bro like that. I was supposed to get at bro behind the scenes, but he wanna run onstage and not holla at me like a real nigga, so I run onstage and take the mic from blood and then we beat his ass from the stage to the street. And that’s how it goes. And I left his ass out in the street with his ass out and his underwear. And that’s exactly what happened, from beginning to end.”

Ski Mask saw things differently, saying that AEG (who was putting on the Outlet Tour) was trying to get Rob Stone off of the tour. “Statistically, I shouldn’t even perform before him. Looking at numbers, I shouldn’t have to perform before him because it doesn’t make sense. My numbers are way higher than his in general. Then performance wise, this nigga is ass. He doesn’t do good in general in performance. So they were trying to throw him off [the tour] and he was angry as fuck.” Ski Mask also stated that the San Diego date was supposed to be his last date on the tour, but he says he might not have been getting paid.

Now, even though he says he wasn't going to perform if he wasn't going to get paid, he did indicate that he would be telling his fans “'on the mic that I'm not performing.' Because they're gonna think I didn't even pull up and they're gonna be mad.” According to Ski Mask, that's when the footage starts, where he's on the stage not being given a mic, but not wanting to get off the stage.

In the case of the Los Angeles tour date, Ski Mask said he only went there because he “didn't want to seem pussy,” indicating that he “didn’t think, even if he was gonna jump me, he was gonna do it like that, by jumping me on the stage and not even give me the heads up that he’s about to jump me or wait until I’m done performing.” As you can see in the above video, that wasn't the case. Ski Mask also alleges that around eight people attacked him, and at some point, knives were drawn and his friend was stabbed.

They both indicated to XXL that they were no longer a part of Desiigner's Outlet Tour.

After their very public scuffles on the Outlet Tour, Ski Mask and Rob Stone would spend time clapping back and forth at each other, but the next real issue was Stone's claims that he was removed from the Rolling Loud Festival in Miami. According to a tweet of his on May 1, Stone says he was paid in full in advance “not to show up at the festival,” saying that “the promoter is their boy.”

They paid me in full in advance not to show up at the festival. The promoter is their boy. They're all pussies. Whatever tho, see ya in CA. https://t.co/smXko0LPMI

The “their” is in reference to XXXTentacion and Ski Mask the Slump God; XXX was already on the bill, and its said that Ski Mask ended up taking Rob Stone's slot. Stone later spoke out on the situation, reiterating that he was paid not to go “for 'safety & security,'” and spoke on how his issues with XXXTentacion was the cause of him being let go.

so y'all know what the deal really is. I was flying in on a private jet cashed as fuck lol they paid me not to go for “safety & security.”

A post shared by DJ Akademiks (@akadmiks) on May 8, 2017 at 6:30pm PDT

June 7, 2017: XXXTentacion gets suckerpunched

It's hard to tell if XXXTentacion was worrying about any flack from his shared beef with Rob Stone when hitting The Observatory during his Revenge Tour, but knowing what has gone down between Ski Mask and Rob Stone, it's hard to be surprised. During his set, someone ran onstage and knocked XXX out with a blow. The individual was immediately bumrushed by security, with a major scuffle ensuing both on stage and behind-the-scenes.

It appears that many in the building started screaming “Fuck Rob Stone.” After the incident, when XXX came to, he hit Twitter to not only say he was set up, but to throw a threat for the next time someone attacks him.

security and venue set me up, I got sucker punched and knocked out, it is what it is.

Sadly, this doesn't seem like it's going to be over any time soon. Maybe Rolling Loud had the right idea; the heat between these factions is too great to have them near each other. If someone doesn't step up to mediate the situation, this could go from bad to worse very quickly.